Zion Williamson’s sneaker blowout injury shows how health can determine ACC outcomes

Sooner or later, if only by osmosis, fans learn there are no asterisks in the record book. You know: the book you throw out when rivals like Duke and North Carolina play. Unless we’re talking NCAA record book, in which schools guilty of rule violations are listed but the results of their participation are eternally marked “vacated.”

Games are reported mostly by date, participants, place and score. Maybe poll ranking, if any, is tossed in, along with whether the action occurred within or beyond the league. All results are final, an attribute sports lovers celebrate as an antidote to life’s frequent ambiguities.

But astute observers look at game outcomes and see what’s not there, too.

This ACC men’s basketball season continues to provide excellent examples of unquantifiable factors shaping results. When Zion Williamson’s Nike PG 2.5 shoe fell apart, causing the freshman to slip and sprain his knee in the opening seconds of Duke’s first meeting this year with North Carolina on Wednesday, the outcome was essentially sealed. That may mark the rare game recalled for an injury, not the result. But as memories fade the record will show only the final 88-72 victory by the Tar Heels over the top-ranked Blue Devils.

Or take Virginia Tech, ranked as high as seventh in the USA Today coaches poll, ninth by AP. After stellar point guard Justin Robinson hurt his foot as January ended, the Hokies edged N.C. State in a game so sour -- 47-24 score, combined 25-90 accuracy from the floor (27.8 percent) -- it induced nausea. Then Buzz Williams’ club proceeded to lose twice, falling to 22nd according to AP.

Savvy observers cut Virginia Tech slack in evaluating its record. Over time, few of us will recall the circumstance that handicapped the Hokies. They lost; that’s what the record says.

Good sportsmanship, not to mention positive thinking, compels coaches to keep their mouths shut about wound woes. Those who repeatedly complain – admittedly a temptation tough to avoid – are hard-pressed not to come across as whiners.

Injuries glaringly compromised Notre Dame’s argument for NCAA inclusion last year, a warning sign for Virginia Tech’s 2019 seeding, if not its tournament inclusion. The Fighting Irish won 18 during the regular season but were bumped from the field at the last despite prolonged, forced absences by their best players, Matt Farrell and Bonzie Colson, the 2018 preseason ACC Player of the Year. So much for assurances selectors would take injury setbacks into consideration.

Now the record will almost certainly show a second straight season the Irish missed the NCAAs, the worst drought at South Bend in more than a decade. A key to this year’s depressed fortunes: a season-ending knee injury to guard Rex Pflueger, one of only two returning starters.

Shorter-term, consider Virginia’s recent back-to-back meetings with top-10 opponents Duke and North Carolina, tussles for supremacy among teams tied for first moving into the backstretch of the league race. “We’re in that conversation now; it’s no longer just Duke and North Carolina,” Cav junior Kyle Guy said proudly in a Smith Center corridor, both knees wrapped in ice. “The schedule did us no favors, but nothing was ever given to us.”

In a close contest like the Duke-UVa rematch at Charlottesville, athletic forward Mamadi Diakite could have made a crucial difference. Instead the 6-9 junior banged heads with teammate De’Andre Hunter and went to the bench after playing only 10 first-half minutes. UVa never caught the Blue Devils, who became the first squad since 2012 to beat a Tony Bennett club twice in the same season.

Speaking of Hunter, the ACC’s 2018 Sixth Man of the Year, he was out with a broken left wrist when last season’s 31-win Virginia squad embarked on its ill-fated NCAA journey. His absence was quickly overlooked by a world fascinated with the Cavs’ collapse, and won’t affect the way that “L” is recorded. But you can bet Virginia adherents took note.

Two days after the Duke defeat, unsung Diakite returned to the lineup against Carolina. Playing 23 minutes he helped limit UNC’s Luke Maye to 2 of 10 shooting in a narrow victory. On the other side of the coin the Tar Heels lost emerging freshman forward Nassir Little to an ankle sprain midway through the first half, and grad student Cam Johnson temporarily in the second. The Heels already lacked rookie Leaky Black and big man Sterling Manley, out since a December win over Davidson.

The Wildcats in turn had fallen at Chapel Hill as star guard Kellan Grady was sidelined with a knee injury, and at Wake Forest without the 2018 Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year. N.C. State likewise struggled to win as ailing playmaker Markell Johnson went in and out of the lineup, including in a defeat at Wake that compromised the Wolfpack’s NCAA prospects.

And so it goes.

Injuries are a given, an intermittent and unpredictable constant, fate’s capricious touch unrecorded among wins and losses. Their occurrence doesn’t escape fans, however, who can recount litanies of defeat colored by injuries to crucial players. Broken wrists have been big at Carolina, for instance, screwing up the national title trajectories of great teams in 1984 (Kenny Smith) and 2012 (Kendall Marshall).

Maybe we need a special record book full of asterisks, pound signs and other punctuation marks delineating game results compromised by injuries. To be really fair, opponents’ key personnel losses also could be acknowledged.

Either that, or take individual impairments in stride and move on.

Dean Smith often said a team could rally to overcome the loss of a key contributor for one game; it was how it responded in the longer run that was more telling. Years from now Duke’s comeback victory at Louisville from a late, 23-point deficit will be recalled admiringly. But building a team is a cumulative process. Three weeks earlier Mike Krzyzewski’s squad beat Virginia at home without injured floor leader Tre Jones. The confidence, cohesion and toughness gained then surely facilitated the win over the Cardinals.

That too should be remembered.